After they stopped being wary of Xu Huo, the people of Moon City returned to the warmth they'd shown in the fairy-tale world. They not only dug up every relic left behind by the third-generation king, but also found several elderly maids to recount, in meticulous detail, everything the king had done in the Castle. They even brought in the daughter of the king's fiancée. That was right: after the king abandoned his throne and fiancée to seek gemstones, he broke off their engagement not long afterward. His former fiancée married someone else and had a daughter, who now recounted the brief time her mother had spent with the third-generation king.
The kings of Moon City had changed so often that this story sounded as though it spanned a long stretch of history. In reality, it had only covered two generations. The daughter of the third-generation king's fiancée was now in her prime.
Xu Huo first looked at the third-generation king's portrait, then asked the maids about his daily habits. He concluded that the king was a man with a noble bearing who was meticulous about his daily life. Even when ill, he bathed and cleaned himself every night and changed his sheets and bedding.
In that respect, he didn't fit the other countries' descriptions of a thief. After all, the people in the fairy-tale world weren't fools.
"...He once said he would build a Castle out of gemstones for us to live in. My mother was overjoyed when she heard that..."
"A Castle made of gemstones?" Xu Huo looked up from the books the third-generation king had left behind and interrupted the fiancée's daughter.
Ms. Fina was a woman of great poise. She rested her hands gracefully folded on her knees and answered calmly, showing no sign of displeasure